Autobiography Review--Making a world of difference-The Kai-Fu Lee Story_part1 This autobiography details Kai-Fu Lee's fulfilling and brilliant life. Mr. Lee was born in Taiwan, and at the age of 11, he went abroad to study in the US. Then, he received a bachelor degree in computer science in Columbia University, and a doctoral degree in Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked in Apple, Microsft and Google. In 2009, he decided to quit as Vice president in Google and found innovation works-a company that helps younger generations with start-up bussiness. Beside all the seccesses in his life, Mr. Lee also had frustrations, and he faced them with courage and honesty. In the U.S., college students don’t have to choose their majors in freshman year. For the first 2 years in college, students have to take liberal education courses such as art, history, music philosophy. Through these courses, they grow open-minded, conscious of their opinions and judgments, reflective of their actions; moreover, they can cultivate hobbies. When Mr. Lee was young, he considered politics and math as his favorite, and he planned to study either of them. After having few politics and math courses, he surprisingly found out that he was not fond of neither of them. He soon turned to cumputer science, for which he has great passion in his entire life. Luckily, with the freedom in American college, students are more likely to find their favorite and to change major easily. Taiwan, on the contrary, set strict rules for changing majors. When students choose the wrong major, they can hardly change majors.

Debunking the Myth of Taiwan is a part of China Many of my foreign friends like to ask me questions like " Is Taiwan an independant country?" or "Does Taiwan belongs to China?". These questions are complicated and controversial. Before reaching a yes or no answer, I think it's better to know more facts about China and Taiwan in historical and cultural point of views. Republic of China(R.O.C), also known as Taiwan nowadays, was established in 1912, afterthe Qing dynasty was overthrown. Dating back to then, the territory of Republic of China included Bangolia, Tibet, and Taiwan. However,in 1946, the Chinese civil war broke out, in which the Communist Party fought against Kuomintang(KMT). In 1949, Kuomintang was defeated and retreated to Taiwan. At that moment, the Communist Party founded a new country,People's Republic of China (PRC), and started to rule mainland China; furthermore, it claimed the Republic of China government had been overthrown. As for Republic of China,which was governed by Kuomintang , continued ruling Taiwan after losing mainland China territory to this day. Apart from the political conflicts between both contries, Taiwan and China have various cultural differences. About the language difference, there are mainly two dialects in Taiwan, Taiwanese and Hakka; and in China, different regions breeds their own dialects. Secondary, Taiwanese civilians who are senior than 20- year-old have suffrage for president. On the contrary, Chinese people cannot vote for their leader. Third, Taiwan allows freedom of speech. In general, no book or information is censored by Taiwanese government. However, Chinese government limit the media and internet. All the information Chinese people access is filtered by their government. Overall, Taiwan is a country with more freedom. Even though some countries don't recognize Taiwan as an independant country under the pressure given by China, Taiwan is not a part of China for sure. Taiwan has it's own constitution, national flag, national anthem, passport , and none of them is consistent with those of China. So after knowing these fact about Taiwan and China, I can answer the question "Is Taiwan a part of China?" with a big NO.

Book Review-teach for the future_part2 The second step is to assign by the student, and there are several advantages of it. For example, by teaching students how to design questions , teachers can embed the knowledge in students mind; students make effort to design good problems in order to impress peers; they don't copy homework anymore. The final step is to grade by the student, which means teachers need to let go their power of grading students. In the past, teachers were respectful and strict, students obeyed them and cared about their opinions. Nowadays, teachers' status has changed, and students care more about peers' opinion than teacher's. As a student,to receive lousy grades from classmates would be such a shame. On the other hand, students also learn when grading. A new era of leaning arrives, people can learn any subject on websites like MOOC and courera at any time anywhere for free. So, our educational system shouldn't remain unchanged. If teachers still regard themselves as lecturers, they could be substituted by online courses. Teachers should guide students, help students to discover new knowledge by themselves. Taiwanese educational system is fossilized. As a Taiwanese who has gone through all these exams, I feel regretful that I failed to learn critical abilities such as building knowledge by oneself. Year by year, children are getting more stressed. However, our competitiveness wouldn't progress if the way of teaching don't change.

Book Review-teach for the future The book-Teach for the future-is about how flipped-classroom learning works and how it influences students learning attitude. It's written by Professor Yeh, an EE professor in NTU. In 2010, Prof. Yeh was awarded the NTU best teaching skill prize(台大教學傑出獎). At that moment, he was so content and he deeply beleived in his flawless teaching skills. However, the day after that, several students nodded off during his class. He was so shocked at the fact that how those students could nod off in such interesting class. He didn't blame the students, on the other hand, he reflected on himself. He finally figured out that what students need is motivation. No matter how good he teaches, students wouldn't be eager to learn without motivation. To create learning motivation is an all-time goal for every teacher! In one course, Prof. Yeh invented "BJT-online", an online game to replace traditional homework. He seperated students into groups. Each team designed problems and solved problems which designed by other teams. The team that solved the most problems wins. This method prevents homework copying and lets students understand textbook theories thoroughly. Pro. Yeh was the first professor who ran presentation and expressing course(簡報製作與表達課) in NTU. He thought that most Taiwanese college students have professional know-hows, but lack of expressing skills. Furthermore, the final grades were given by primary school students, which was a very pioneering decision. And why did he do so? He mentioned that the most difficult presentation in the world is to present to those who are influential but ignorant. Let's get back to the topic. The spirit of flipped-classroom is to learn by the student, assign by the student, grade by the student. Learning by the student is to cultivate the ability of building knowlege by oneself. Unlike traditional teachers, a teacher giving lectures, flipped-classroom teachers assign a problem and then encourage students to use any learning tool they could find to solve it. During the process, students may make mistakes, they may figure out by themselves, teachers can give little help as a guide. Afterward, teachers explain the problem, students would be more impressed when the a-ha moment stikes.

Start working I star working for two weeks, I'm totally a novice now. So far I enjoy my work so much. I like my colleagues, I like the working atmosphere, I like my dormitory offer by my company as well. Few days ago one girl moved in and she turned out to be the same age as me. We suddenly became close friends. The only disadvantage of my job is that right next to our company is a chemical factory which release contaminated air at any moment. At the end of August I will have a really difficult English exam, I hope I can pass it. And I also wish to find some English learning partners.

Busy and Fulfilling Days It has been one and half month since i came back to Taiwan. The weather is relatively warm and nice. Most of my friends there envy me of being in such nice weather.However, I miss the weather in Europe so much. I miss the tactile of the snow, the caress of the freezing breeze and the low humidity air. Beside the weather, I feel so content with having local food and meeting friends in Taiwan. I also spare time to keep contact with friends in Europe. Yet, time difference is a big distance for us. Coming back to Taiwan is like coming back to real life from a dream, a long dream last for half year. Real life is not easy, lots of stress waits for me. Hopefully, until now I still feel motivated. I wish I can be self-fulfilling everyday and visit Europe again!

What's the difference between ocean and sea

Celebrate New year in Brno Brno is the city where I study in Czech Republic. Originally, I plan to celebrate New Year in Prague. However, I changed my plan in the last moment that I decided to stay in Brno. The reason is that the biggest fireworks will be set off at 6 pm on January 1. If we stayed in Prague we would have nothing to do for the whole night. It's a right decision. After we came back we had a small celebration party in the dorm. The meals are so delicious. And half hour before midnight we went to the hill which just 15 minutes walk far from our dorm. Up the hill, we can see the panoramic view of the whole city and fireworks everywhere. I was overwhelmed by the beautiful views. In Taiwan we also have one of the best fireworks but everywhere is so crowded. I am fed up with the feeling of being in a sardine can. As of here, we just walked for a short distance and we could enjoy the fireworks. I have been to many different places to celebrate New Year and I can say that this year is my favorite year. After the fireworks, we drank champagne and said blessing words to friends. The most funny part was when we were leaving down from the hill. The snow on the ground was so slippery that made us fell down so many times. Some people gave up walking on the snow-padded lanes and they slided down instead. I am glad I made I good decision to stay in Brno and spend my time with friends here. It will be one of my most treasured memories in whole life. The following picture was people on the hill trying to walk down.

My Christmas and New year This Christmas I stayed in the dormitory. It was very sad for me because all of my Taiwanese friends go abroad during Christmas time. I thought I would be alone here. Fortunately, my other friends invited me to their Christmas dinner, so I spent a wonderful evening with them. We also played a game. The rule is we passed down a word in whispered to the one sit next to us and the last person speak out what he/she heard. It sounds easy but actually it's not. All of us ten people come from five different countries, and we have different accent. That's what makes this game more difficult and more interesting. During this games, sometimes I felt really frustrated because in the whole group I have the most different accent from the rest of the people who are all from European countries.But still we had a lot of fun. This New year I am going to spend my time in Prague. I hope they have beautiful fireworks to enjoy! The following picture was me with our Christmas dinner. :))))